and sorrowful reflections, and turbulent passions, and violent temptations. By industry we become beneficial to others, able to assist our friends, to relieve the poor, to instruct the ignorant, and to provide more especially for those whom God hath commanded to our care. Thus much concerning industry in our worldly callings. II. Let us now pass on to diligence in religious affairs, in working out our salvation, to which we have the most pressing motives. The shortness and uncertainty of life warns us not to neglect it; for since upon our present behaviour depends our future stare; since the days of man are few, few according to the course of nature, and often made fewer by a thousand unforeseen accidents, it behoves us to lose no time, but to set about our duty instantly, "to day whilst it is called to day. The reward set before us, excites us to it. We think it reasonable to labour for conveniences which are temporal, that is, uncertain and transitory and this industry is commendable. Much more should we exert. our utmost care and diligence in securing to ourselves the unchangeable favour of God, the society of saints. and angels, and an endless happiness which shall be mixed with no sorrows and disappointments. Gratitude moves us to it; to serve him with all our power who hath done so much for us, with whose benefits we are enclosed and surrounded, 7 rounded, which way ever we cast our eyes and our thoughts. The punishment allotted to the idle and wicked servant calls us to it, to think no labour too great by which we may avoid the wrath to come. Infamy, and reproach, and want, and dependence appear in terrible forms to us, and to escape them we are willing, if we have any spirit to labour incessantly, and to submit to the hardest toil. Fools and blind, if we perceive not that these are nothing, compared to the woe, which must be the future portion of these who will not serve God here in this state of probation. Our present interest invites us to it, to be most industrious in pursuing the welfare of our soul, which will procure us peace of mind, and the blessing of God even upon our worldly undertakings; whilst a neglect of our duty to him will be attended with fear and remorse, and give us an uneasiness which outward circumstances, however flourishing, will not be able to compose. Such motives we have to religious industry. Every Christian will certainly allow them to have sufficient weight and force, and acknowledge that eternal life is desirable, and that it is an indispensable duty to serve God. But the illusion is this: We are inclined to think this duty so easy to be performed, that a very little diligence and caution will be sufficient. Let Letus then consider what kind of expressions the sacred writers use, when they speak of our Christian duty. They exhort us to be rich and fruitful in every good work, to be ready to every good work, to be zealous of good works, to abound always in the work of the Lord, to pursue and work good towards all men, to exercise ourselves in godliness, and in the labour of charity, to work out our salvation with fear and trembling, to give diligence to make our calling and election sure, to continue patiently in well doing, to run that we may obtain a prize, and to press towards the mark, to watch continually and be upon our guard, to give all diligence to add one virtue to another, to walk circumspectly, to watch incessantly, to pray, to gird up the loins of our mind, to strive that we may enter in at the strait gate, to wrestle against principalities a powers, to take the kingdom of heaven by v olence, to fight that we may receive a crown, and to war a good warfare, and to endure hardship as faithful soldiers of Jesus Christ. Thus the Scriptures tell us plainly, that without some labour we cannot be good. The difficulties with which the first Christians struggled were many and great; and difficulties of one kind or other will ever be arising. We are assaulted by importunate temptations; we often feel a propensity to go aside from our duty, and we are surrounded with bad examples, with multitudes who pursue their own destruction. When we reflect upon these things, we may perhaps be led into the other extreme, and suspect that the ways of righteousness must needs be disagreeable, and that the passage through them is tedious and painful. But the Scriptures say that the ways of religion are ways of pleasantness; and the word of God is true, and consistent with itself. That obedience is a labour, and that it is a pleasure, ́are equally certain. That these things are reconcileable will appear, if we consider that in all honourable and profitable employments, in all arts, in all studies, the beginnings are difficult, and the difficulties must be mastered by obstinate application. But many things contribute to lessen those difficulties daily, or to make men less sensible of them, as a sprightly resolu tion, present profit, the hope of still greater advantages, experience and practice, and long custom, which is a second nature. Thus some, whom idle by-standers judge to lead a wretched and labourious life, are really most contented and pleased with their condition; for a man is just as miserable as he thinks himself, and if he delights in industry, industry to him is a diversion, and idleness is a toil. The So also it is in our religious concerns. duty of a Christian isa laborious thing, especially to those who have bad dispositions to conquer, or particular difficulties to encounter ; but, when we do any good thing with labour, the labour passeth away, and the good remains: when we do any evil thing with pleasure, the pleasure passeth passeth away, and the evil remains; and then custom making our obedience habitual, an even temper, peace of mind, and many other present advantages springing from it, the hope not only of escaping future evil, but of obtaining everlasting life, and the divine assistance vouchsafed to us as far as it is needful, will by degrees make our inclinations join with our reason, and our duty become our delight. IT is with the most serious and solicitous hope of being instrumental to your welfare, that I have complied with the wish of my reverend Brother the ordinary of this Chapel †, and now * This Sermon was preached, in the afternoon of Nov. 9, 1785, in the Chapel of Newgate, by the Rev. Geo. Gaskin, D. D. to eighteen convicts, who were all executed, the following morning, for various crimes. The Rev. John Vilette. оссиру |